I Don’t Care About the Story, I Want a Cat ～Transmigrated into an Otome Game～ - Chapter 21

Extracurricular Magic Lesson

The garden of Warram estate overlooked the sea. 

The side facing the sea was on a steep cliff, so it didn’t have any high walls surrounding the lighthouse that was situated there. The cliff side was bordered by a low fence for safety, and beyond the fence you could see all the way out to the sea. It was quite a scenic place. There was a tree there which had become one of Tiger’s favourite places to climb and rest on.  

The three students who had fought the Kraken yesterday were now lined up on the cliff with their backs facing the beautiful view of the sea. Next to them stood a girl who only reached up to their chests. Compared to the three boys, who were clearly nervous, the girl’s expression was lit up in excitement. 

Sir Dion, former Grand Magician, stood in front of them with a stern expression on his face, his eyes narrowed into a sharp gaze that didn’t miss a thing. He was dressed in a pitch black robe that clashed with the bright blue sky stretching into the background behind him. Even though they were standing on soft grass, the three students could hear the sound of shoes clattering noisily on the auditorium floor, and reflexively straightened their backs.  

“We will be using this today.”

Sir Dion picked up leaves that had fallen on the ground when Tiger, who had accompanied Amy even to the lesson, shook the branches of the tree with his tail. He handed a leaf to each student. The individual green leaf was almost weightless in their hands. 

“I want you to keep this at eye level without touching it.”

He gave them a command to start and the leaves floated gently up in front of the four students. Nicholas was quite skilled with magic so he looked calm as he easily maintained the height of his leaf. Gilbert, on the other hand, had always struggled with magic. He had his brows furrowed as he tried to maintain the height on his leaf which was quivering dangerously from side to side. This difference in their expressions was quite rare, thought Amy, as they usually always reacted the same to everything. 

Amy’s brother, Harold, was good at exerting large amounts of magical power but he wasn’t very good at controlling it. He seemed busy trying to adjust the height of the leaf but it kept going too high above his head, or falling too low.

Keeping the weightless leaf afloat while being subjected to an unstoppable sea breeze from all around them required very precise control of magical power. It looked like a simple task at first, but was actually quite high in difficulty. Sometimes, the breeze would change its direction and would send both Harold and Gilbert into a panic as they tried to bring back their fluttering leaf to their eye level. 

10 minutes passed like this which soon turned to 15 minutes…… However Sir Dion gave no indication of making them stop. 

It was physically exhausting to continue exerting magical power for a long time in a situation that required precise control. All of them had sweat build up on their foreheads and their faces reddened as time went on, but no one gave up. 

Sir Dion was sitting on a chair conjured by magic, his eyes trained on the students in a way that made it clear he wouldn’t allow them to give up yet. After all, the girl next to them, who was six years their junior, was doing the same thing with barely a sweat on her calm face. 

Amy had her hands stretched out in front of her as her leaf stayed stationary at eye level. She seemed to be in a good mood and looked like she was about to start humming at any moment. 

Harold leaned down and whispered to her, “Amy, you look like you’re having fun.”  

“Huh? Uh, yeah. I’m always learning by myself, that’s why. It’s so much fun to practice together with you guys.”

She still hadn’t made her debut in society so she didn’t have a lot of friends. She spent most of her time by herself in their home since her father was usually at work, her brother lived at the school dorms, and her mother, knowing how shy she was, didn’t force her to go out with her to socialize.   

She tended to get nervous around people, and that made her face become stiff. She used to give off an appearance of cold indifference, and didn’t look very approachable because of her sharp features. But ever since she gained some weight, her face had filled out to become rounder and her appearance changed to become more friendly. 

On top of that, ever since she got Tiger she had begun smiling more often. 

She was smiling sweetly now too as she looked at her brother. Her sincere smiling face made one want to protect her. There was no way her brother, and the twins, would give up first when she was looking at them like this. 

This type of magic training was often done as a basic training at their school. They would do this as a warm up exercise for a few minutes before moving on to other training. It shouldn’t be a problem if they had to do it for a bit longer… 

That should be the case but, in reality, it didn’t feel good at all to have their magical energy slowly scrape away. However, as Amy’s seniors, they didn’t want to show that they were struggling.   

“Ok! I’m going to give it my all as well!”

“You’re quite good at this, Amy. Have you done this a lot?”

Amy averted her gaze from her leaf to reply to the twins. 

“Um, yes, I usually practice this for about 30 minutes.”

“Huh?”

“Sometimes I practice with three leafs floating at various heights, but it’s difficult to maintain because Sir Dion makes the wind blow in different directions.”

Amy looked a bit disappointed to admit that. However, in truth, even students in the magic specialisation class could barely manage to do that. 

“You can float more than one… on different altitudes too…?” 

Judging from Sir Dion’s expression yesterday, it looked like he liked Amy. But they’d never guessed he was teaching her magic at a level much advanced than their own. 

“Looks like the task isn’t difficult for you seeing as you have so much time to chatter.”

Before they noticed, Sir Dion was among them, his face blank, and a large water balloon floating on top of him, as big as their heads.

“If any of you drops their leaf, they will have this water fall on them.”

“Ah, Gil, your leaf is falling!”

“Huh, oh!”

“Ah, let’s make it a bit more challenging.”

With that said, Sir Dion pointed his wand towards them and a small tornado shot out from it. Now, even Nicholas looked strained with this new obstacle.

“Wah, so pretty……”

The wind produced by magic was as brilliant as a crystal. Amy’s golden eyes shined in appreciation. Sir Dion’s ice blue eyes narrowed on her but he didn’t say anything. He just turned around and walked away without another word. 

As soon as he was out of shot the three students let out miserable shrieks as they spoke over each other.

“Is he serious!? This is way too difficult!”

“Hey, Gil, yours is falling again, make it higher!!”

“Ahh why is the water above me wobbling!!?”

“Hahaha, this is so fun! It’s like a game!” Amy was the only one who looked like she was  having fun. 

It wasn’t long after that the sound of a balloon bursting, and water falling echoed around in the garden overlooking the sea. 

“Looks like you are having fun. Why don’t you take a break and have some tea?”

The boys were busy drying their bodies after getting wet from the magic water when Isabel approached them and invited them to take a break. She had prepared some snacks and tea for them in a gazebo nearby.

“I really appreciate you coming all the way to Warram, Sir Dion. We have some Cot fruit cakes too, please help yourself.”

Cot was a fruit, similar to walnuts, which was grown on trees imbued with magical power. Although eating it didn’t increase the total amount of magical energy you had in your body, it did help with replenishing spent magical energy. It was common for magicians to carry long-lasting confections baked with cot fruit and other similar nuts.  

Amy, whose stomach felt empty after expending so much magical energy, looked up at her teacher with a bright face as soon as she heard these words. 

“Sir Dion, I’m hungry……”

“It’s because you wasted a lot of your magical energy.”

Amy had been so excited over participating in a training lesson with her brother and his friends, she realized her control over her energy had been more sloppy than usual. She nodded contritely at Sir Dion’s chastisement. The older magician patted her hair in satisfaction,

Tiger, sensing that the lesson was over, climbed down from the tree and walked over to Amy with his tail pointed up behind him. He meowed softly as he rubbed the side of his body to hers, begging for attention. Amy had no choice but to pet him.

They moved to the gazebo for tea; the table was divided into two parts so that the children and adults sat separately. The conversation flowed easily among them as they talked about the fight yesterday and today’s lesson.

“By the way,” Harold said to Amy, “You know the waterway here. The one on the main road leading to the mansion. You should be careful not to let Tiger fall in there.”

The Margrave’s mansion had canals lining various parts around it. Similar to a moat, they were there for security, but also to prevent the spreading of fire in case there was one. The canals were filled with sea water and weren’t very wide, but they were considerably deep. Amy and her brother had been told from a young age not to go near them. Amy tilted her head at her brother’s caution. 

“Yes, I’ll take care. But why are you telling this to me now?”

“Do you remember the deep sea jellyfish that was caught up in the fishing boat yesterday? It was released in the canals.”

“Eh?”

The deep sea jellyfish had a poisonous sting, and became almost colorless in water. Although it lived deep in the sea, as its name implied, it could also survive in shallow waters due to its strong vitality. 

It was their grandfather’s idea to use it as a security measure in the canals instead of releasing it back in the sea.

“I-I see. I’ll take care not to let Tiger go near them.”

Gilbert and Nicholas grinned as they butted into their conversation.

“Speaking of the jellyfish, what happened with that girl from the boat, Harold?”

“Yeah, you guys were talking for a long time at the celebration last night!”

Last night, there had been a party to celebrate their victory against the Kraken at the barracks, However Amy hadn’t attended since she was only 10 years old. It looked like the old man and the girl from the fishing boat had shown up briefly to thank the members for saving them. 

Apparently, the girl had run into her brother there and spent some time talking to him judging by how the twins were teasing him now. 

“Ah, she told me I was good with my swords. I guess my swords really do stand out considering she had time to notice them in that kind of dangerous situation.”

It was true that his sword skills were really eye-catching, but Amy didn’t want to reaffirm it when he said it himself with that arrogant smile on his face. She pretended not to hear him and busied herself with petting Tiger who was starting to purr as he lay his head on her lap. Besides, her mind was still trying to process the fact that the heroine-like girl had talked with her brother. 

“But the fight yesterday was fought underwater. Besides… When did Harold join the fray?”

“Who knows? I was busy keeping guard on the deck so I didn’t notice. Did you see him, Gil?” 

“Hey, aren’t you guys being too cruel!? Maria finally complimented me so let me gloat a little bit!” 

Amy raised her head when she heard the name of the girl, her hand leaving Tiger’s forehead. The cat looked disgruntled when she stopped petting him. He raised his front paws up to knead Amy’s abdomen. He looked so cute and precious, she immediately went back to petting him. 

Her mind was still stuck on the name though. Maria… could she be a Holy Maiden? Then, was she really the heroine!?

She unintentionally gritted down on the cot cake in her mouth, making a loud chewing sound. 

“Oh so that cute girl is called Maria? How old is she?”

“Ah, I thought she was a bit older but when I asked her she turned out to be the same age as Amy.”

“What!? Hey, don’t meddle with her then, she’s too young for you!”

“As if I would! She’s just, what do you call it, a fan? Something like that? So it was more like having a meet and greet with a famous person.”

Amy brought her attention back to the boys who were arguing noisily. She picked up a piece of Cot seed from the cake and gave it to Tiger; he really liked the crunchy texture of the seed. 

She laughed as Tiger lapped up the seed from her hands. 

A black shadow suddenly fell on her brother and his friends from behind.

“…… I think you’ve rested enough. Time to get back to practice.”

“Sir Dion! A-already?”

“You can take a longer break if you want, but I will take that as you wanting to increase the difficulty.”

“No, we’ll go now!”

Thanks to Tiger, and the intense magic lesson, Amy had forgotten all about the heroine when she returned to her room.